Fighting for Freedom
by sparklepencil
Summary: 14 year old sisters Sophie and Ruth feel imprisoned and unable to escape from the horrible abuse they face from the cowboys. They see no point in trying to be set free until a certain stallion enters their lives and shows them a better way. Faced with difficult decisions, they must decide for themselves whether freedom is worth it. Rated M for darker themes and violence.


Hello lovely readers! I am back after a long (looooooooong) rut of being busy with college, my relationship, friendships, and life in general. I am here to do a collaboration with WaterBendingQueen, a fellow Spirit lover and friend. Spirit has always been and will always be my favorite movie. After all, I have been called Spirit since I was 2 when the movie first came out. Anyways enough of my blabbing, enjoy the story! The chapters will alternate between us.

~sparklepencil~

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_"Spirit... please...don't go." _Esperanza pleaded with her only child. _"I worry that the dangers out there are far too risky.."_

Spirit gazed at his mother with a thoughtful expression "_Mother, if there is any danger I will immediately return. But for the sake of my curiosity, I must know what is out there. I must follow the light, it feels as if it's calling me towards it."_

_"Please...if you won't listen to me at least promise you'll be careful. I cannot imagine how I would react if you got hurt..." _the mare replied.

Spirit nuzzled his mother affectionately and nodded slowly. _"I promise mother, I will be as careful as possible. I love you. Goodbye."_ As he said goodbye, he began to gallop across the grassland to the mysterious light in the distance. Esperanza could only watch and call after him _"I love you too."_

Meanwhile at the light source that Spirit was so curious about, two sisters slept peacefully under the brightness of the starry sky with the rest of the cowboys. Only crickets and loud snoring could be heard as everyone slept.

In the distance thundering hooves approached closer and closer as Spirit reached the edge of the camp. He looked around everywhere noticing the sleeping people and horses around him. Spirit noticed something shiny at the end of a cowboy's boot. Reaching down with his neck, he sniffed the object only to find his face stuck in it. Slightly freaking out, he twisted and turned his head until the boot went flying off. The boot soared through the air and hit one of the sleeping sisters square in the face.

Sophie awoke with a sharp pain in her face. She looked at the boot with confusion, her vision still slightly distorted from sleep. "Wha..What's going on?"

Spirit's eyes immediately widened at seeing Sophie's awakened form. He backed up slowly and cautiously, trying not to cause a scene and make noise to awaken the others. He desired to explore more, but that could not be done if one of them were awake.

Sophie looked at Spirit and gasped in amazement. She noticed how tense and afraid he seemed at accidentally seeing her and tried to calm him down. "It's alright... I'm not going to hurt you. I promise," the girl spoke in a soothing tone, slowly approaching Spirit with caution.

_"Why should I trust you? You're one of them. I have no idea what they are capable of." _the stallion snorted.

"I promise, I would never harm you. I just want to know who you are and where you came from." the brunette whispered in reply.

Spirit immediately looked at the girl with surprise. Could she understand his thoughts? He decided to test it once again to see if she really could. _"If you can understand me, listen well. My name is Spirit. I come from my homeland not too far from here. I wanted to explore what there was out here and I was guided by a light. Could you tell me where I am?"_

Sophie smiled in pure joy. She couldn't believe Spirit could understand her, and that she could understand him in return. "Spirit, that's a wonderful name. I am Sophie and you are at the cowboy camp we set up just last night," her face turned more solemn as she spoke "but if you do not leave in good time, I am afraid my kind will not be as amazed as me."

_"What could you possibly mean by that?" _Spirit asked, but instead of answering Sophie went to wake up her sister, too excited to keep the news to herself. "Ruth, wake up! We have a visitor!"

Ruth opened her eyes and lazily stretched, yawning and looking at her sister curiously. "What do you mean visitor?"

"See for yourself!" Sophie exclaimed as she gestured towards Spirit.

Ruth looked at Spirit with widened eyes that soon turned to worry. "If that wild mustang doesn't leave here soon, he could get in a whole lot of trouble," the black-haired girl responded to her sister.

_"Again, please fill me in on what you are talking about. I need to know what is going on." _Spirit thought.

"Sophie, am I going crazy or can you understand his thoughts too?" Ruth whispered to her. Sophie smiled and shook her head in reply."You're not crazy, I can read his thoughts too. I think it's cool that we can communicate with horses. Must have been inherited from grandmother."

Ruth smiled at the thought of their grandmother, a beautiful and intelligent Lakota woman. She along with their parents raised the girls to never lose hope no matter how difficult things could get. They dearly missed her and their parents and wished they were still alive with all their hearts.

Turning to Spirit, Ruth decided that she would try her best to get him away and back to safety. "You shouldn't be here! Get out of here now! My kind are asleep! Leave before they find you!"

Spirit snorted in defiance and shook his head. _"I am too curious about your kind... I must know more."_

"If I tell you what we are, will you leave?" the girl cried silently, hoping that nobody else would awaken.

_"Yes, tell me more about the cowboys. My life is uneventful, the most I get out of it is scolding the young foals to behave. I want to know more."_

"Very well then. My kind are ruthless cowboys that want all the horses and property they can get their greedy hands on. If they knew you were here, they would not hesitate to capture you and break you into a well-disciplined horse. And what I mean by that is, they desire to break spirits. They want nothing more than to see even the most wildest of horses become mindless obedient animals that are always willing to do anything they say. It's absolutely horrible! They will strip you of your personality and mold you into what their twisted minds believe a proper horse should be. So in the most caring and kindest way I can put it, run! Go now! Do not stay another minute!"

Spirit rolled his eyes at the words the young girl spoke, surely the cowboys were not capable of such horrid behavior. _"I do not believe you. I see no reason for why I should leave, and besides I have already traveled all this way. I want to walk around and explore some more before leaving."_

Suddenly the thundering of hooves alerted everyone, especially Spirit. As the group turned to look at the incoming figure, Spirit could tell from a distance that it was his mother. He felt worried, shocked, and scared at the same time. _"No...this cannot be happening. If I get captured, it's fair game. I can handle them. But not my mother...she cannot at any cost be harmed."_

"I know, I'm scared too." Ruth responded. "If she is seen and captured as well, she will suffer the same fate."

_"Spirit! Please come home!"_ Esperanza desperately cried out to her son. Upon seeing Sophie and Ruth, her expression turned to one of fear. _"They have already spotted you! You must hurry at all costs and return home! I will try my best to distract them! So please, just go!__"_

"You must be Spirit's mother! I am Sophie and this is my sister Ruth. We would never try to hurt you or your son and we have no intention of alerting the others! We have been simply trying to warn Spirit to leave since we first saw him enter the camp. We do not want either of you to be captured!"

"Get out of here! They'll get you too!" Ruth exclaimed as she looked at Esperanza in fear. "Don't come any closer! Please! It's bad enough that Spirit accidentally woke us up, any more noise or movement and they could be alerted as well!"

"Oi, what's all this noise about? Why are you girls shouting?" one of the cowboys questioned as he woke up from his slumber. Rubbing his eyes and yawning, Sophie and Ruth looked at one another in fear. Spirit and Esperanza snorted in shock and froze in fear.

The cowboy looked at Spirit and his mother in shock. "Hey! Why didn't you alert or try to wake someone up? These would make fine horses!" the man chuckled as he eyed them both. "Wake up boys, looks like we got ourselves some wild horses to capture!"

Sophie and Ruth turned to Spirit and Esperanza in that moment and gestured for them to go away. Spirit understood immediately and began galloping across the field back to his homeland, his mother not too far behind. Once the cowboy noticed their quick escape, he shouted louder to wake up the whole camp. "GET UP EVERYBODY! WE GOT RUNNERS!"

Once the cowboys were up and understood what was going on, they quickly jumped on their horses in hot pursuit of the wild horses. Sophie and Ruth could only cry out of fear and panic as they helplessly watched the men force their horses to gallop across the field.

Suddenly, a buckskin wild horse with unruly black mane nudged Sophie. _"Quickly, get on my back! I am part of Spirit's herd and we need to work together to save him!"_

Sophie looked over at her sister who was riding a grey kiger mustang. _"My name is Diego and the horse you are riding is Buckwheat. We are a part of Spirit's herd and we wish for you to help us. Let's roll!"_

The sisters nodded at each other and nudged the wild horses into full gallops. The horses easily surpassed the cowboys' horses and neighed loudly as a warning to Spirit's herd to escape. The herd seemed to get the idea, and ran quickly away from the homeland so they would not be captured by the cowboys.

However, the cowboys seemed to only have interest in Spirit himself. While he ran in one direction to divert their attention from his herd, all the cowboys followed him in hot pursuit. They could not beat his speed but they hoped by chasing him down, they could tire him out and easily capture him.

At one point in the chase, Spirit was met with a dead end with only one way to go, back the way he came. He jumped onto the ledge and quickly maneuvered himself around and back, effectively knocking over a number of cowboys. At the end of the tiresome chase, only one remained. The Colonel.

The Colonel realized from the beginning that Sophie and Ruth were trying to help Spirit by setting up traps for the cowboys to fall in so they could not chase him. They worked with Buckwheat and Diego to ensure that at some point the cowboys would give in and leave Spirit alone.

On one hand the Colonel admired the girls' bravery. Being their uncle and only surviving relative meant he had to take care of them after their parents and grandmother were dead, and in his opinion he did it well. He loved the girls with all of his heart just like his deceased sister and brother-in-law did. On the other hand however, he was very angry at them for working with the wild horse. He did not understand why they did not want to follow in his footsteps. After all, they could become fine cowgirls and continue the legacy he has built for himself.

"What in tarnation are you girls doing? Why are you helping the wild horse? He needs to be captured, not set free! If you're not going to help us, stay out of our way!"

"We will never allow you to capture him! He belongs here in his homeland with his kind. Not broken and trained to be molded into what you believe is perfection! He is perfect the way he is!" Sophie snapped at her uncle.

"We'll see about that," the Colonel replied, preparing his lasso as he approached Spirit all by himself. Cowboys and horses alike got up from where they fell and watched in amazement as the Colonel threw the lasso that started it all.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. At first Spirit seemed happy that he was beating the cowboys and for a split second he let his guard down and galloped a little slower. But it was that split second that ended up costing him his freedom, for in that moment the lasso fit perfectly around his neck and he was forced to the ground. He let out a cry of anguish as the Colonel smirked at him. Soon, other cowboys had gathered around to lasso him and he was officially captured.

Esperanza's cry was heard above all the commotion. She attempted to run down the cliff to save her son, but Spirit knew that wasn't what any of them wanted. _"No mother... you must stay. STAY! Do not approach me any further! They will hurt you too! Please!"_

Esperanza shook her head and tried to approach further. _"Please... not my only son! My child! Let him GO! He doesn't deserve this!"_

"I know you are very upset right now, but please do not come any closer! They will capture you too!" Sophie exclaimed to his mother. With a reluctant neigh, Esperanza cantered back up to where the other wild horses watched with horror in their eyes.

The Colonel laughed a hearty laugh and all the other cowboys joined him. "Would ya look at that boys! Looks like yer days of being wild and free are over! We are gonna turn you into a mighty fine stallion!"

Spirit looked at the Colonel with hatred burning in his eyes. _"How dare you... how DARE you! How dare you assume that my spirit will be broken and I will follow your orders like a mindless obedient puppet? I will NEVER submit to you. You may have captured me physically but I will never stop fighting until I am free once again."_

Suddenly, a loud sigh was heard from the sisters. They approached Spirit despite the orders to stay back and looked him in the eye.

"We promise...we will do everything in our power to save you. Whatever it takes." they whispered at the same time to Spirit.

Later that evening as the sun was setting and the girls were traveling solemnly across the plain with Spirit in tow, they took it upon themselves to keep him company.

"Spirit... we have a confession. All of our lives, we feel as if we have been kept in the darkness and imprisoned. We do not understand freedom the way you do. Freedom to us is meaningless because we believe it will never happen for us. When we were younger, growing up with our parents was amazing. They treated us with kindness, respect, love, and loyalty. We miss them so dearly and wish they were still with us. And the thing is, the Colonel is kind to us too. He is our uncle, our mother's brother. He loves us and we are well aware of that. But his men... his men are awful. They have done unspeakable things to both my sister and I, we would rather spare you the details. They are cruel and greedy and abusive to us and we hate living with them. Our uncle bless his heart has no idea but we are too terrified to tell him in fear that he will not believe us. We want to be free so badly but we do not see a point in it at all. Even if we were somehow able to escape, we have no idea what we would do. Where we would go and how we would live. I just do not know what to do about it." Sophie finished with a sob.

_"Freedom is a wonderful thing... I took it for granted while I had it. I thought my life was boring and meaningless as well, that is why I wanted to discover more about your life. I did not know the light would lead me to your kind, I just desired a sense of adventure and mystery. When I discovered your people I wanted to know more about them, why they are the way they are and why they desire to force horses into obedience. I would trade anything to have my freedom back, except for my herd. I would rather be captured than let any of them suffer the same fate. But freedom is not meaningless and you should never believe it's not going to happen. You need hope and a good spirit. Freedom is more than having a sense of individuality, it's having a sense of independence and space to learn and grow on your own. Freedom is the most wonderful thing you can have. If you have the freedom to do anything you desire, it can be done with ease. So never give up on freedom. Freedom means everything your parents would have wanted you to have. It means looking back on everything it took to get you free and thinking with a sense of pride of how many amazing things you did to obtain it. I believe I can be free again because I have hope. Let's make a deal. If we work together to set ourselves free physically, mentally, and emotionally we will finally know what that feeling is like. For me it will be again but it will be your first time. I want to help you two in any way possible, I just need to know you're with me."_

"Oh Spirit! Of course we are always with you!" the girls silently sobbed as they felt inspired from his speech. "I for one completely agree with you. We will have to develop a plan to escape and it will take time and a lot of effort but we can do it." Ruth whispered. "Even if it takes all year we will make it," Sophie replied.

And so, as the cowboys set up camp for the night and the girls watched the last of the twilight fade, they gained a new sense of hope and inspiration. No longer were they hopeless, they believed freedom could be obtainable. And with Spirit by their side, they were determined to make that happen.


End file.
